Swinging to the Rhythms of the River Tao

~ 17numa
Rhythm is the flow of the cosmos
as it cycles
a beat at a time to the ends
of the earth
and back
and forth
and up and down,
this way and that,
from beginning to middle to end.
Rhythm is the force of pressure
that pulsates
as a vibration
through the mind,
picking up on the Word –
Genesis point, Origin source –
as an antenna
homing in on the final answer.
Rhythm is a little lie
we tell ourselves
as we dance
to shake off the horrors of life –
a way to embrace the chaos
instead of collapsing in a heap.
 
This poem – Rhythm – originally appeared in Tuck Magazine earlier in the year. I post it here for no other reason than it happens to be the one which randomly popped into my head a short while ago as I was walking up to the park and trying to decide what to do with this here blog post thingamajig today.

My interview with the wonderful poetry journal Yellow Chair Review should be coming out later today. I’ll certainly be sharing the link on various social media platforms when such a thing occurs, and I will offer my reflections on the piece in further depth tomorrow here at 17Numa.

 
Let me say a big thank you to April Mae Berza for including my poem “A Maelstrom of Chaos” in the debut issue of her Saudade Magazine. Half of the proceeds from the sale of this issue will go to helping school children in the Philippines. A most worthy cause, indeed, and so I’m more than happy to give a little plug to the page where the issue can be purchased…simply follow this link to do so. There is no contributor copy offered with publication, and as I am a bit low on funds at the moment, I won’t be able to purchase a copy for myself at this time. However, here’s a little grovel song. If you’d like to send me a belated birthday gift, this issue might be a pretty cool way to go. Or, you could pick up and send my way one of the other twenty or thirty journals I’ve appeared in this year and don’t yet have a copy of. It’s nice to know my name is out there gracing the table of contents in so many different journals, but it would be nicer still to have a hard copy held in my greedy little hands…hohoho, I jest, of course…sort of.
 
Thank you also to Kushal Poddar for accepting my poem “Orbs” to appear in the forthcoming inaugural issue of his Words Surfacing Magazine. I’m quite looking forward to reading through what he puts together for this new venture he’s undertaken. As Kushal is a fine poet in his own right, I’m sure the selection of material he’s compiled will be a pleasure to peruse.
 
If you’d like to get the scoop on the new Blogs Page I’ve been working on for the past week or so, check out some of the recent posts here at 17Numa where announcements about the open call can be found.
 
As always, I’d like to encourage you to follow me here at 17Numa…and if you dig the vibe that I’m putting out, feel free to like the posts and leave comments. Let’s get a dialogue started…it just might send my mind swirling off into wild new directional tangents, which can only mean good things concerning the content I hammer out here. I’d love to connect with you, so if you’d love to connect with me, then let’s get connected together, as One, Eternally, Always and Forever…where, you might ask? Well, for now, on Facebook and Twitter, but down the road I’m sure we’ll meet back at the Source.
 
Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar

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